Laboratory automation system for conveying test tubes

ABSTRACT

A laboratory automation system ( 12 ) for conveying biological samples or reactants contained in test tubes ( 13 ), and automatically routing said plates ( 4 ) towards processing modules ( 18 ) of said biological material, wherein a platform ( 1 ) interposed between said laboratory automation system ( 12 ) and a handling system ( 14 ) of consumable products ( 4, 42, 100 ), which includes a horizontal crosspiece ( 6 ) whereon a first robot ( 7 ) and a second robot ( 8 ) are sliding mounted, the first robot ( 7 ) being provided with gripping means ( 9 ) of pipettes ( 10 ) adapted to collect and release the biological material or the reactant, and a second robot ( 8 ) being provided with gripping means ( 11 ) of consumable products ( 4, 42, 100 ).

The present invention relates to an interfacing apparatus between alaboratory automation system and a platform for handling consumables andliquids in the field of molecular biology.

Molecular biology is a branch of biology which studies living beings onbasic physiology molecular mechanism level, focusing in particular oninteractions between macromolecules, i.e. nucleic proteins and acids(DNA and RNA). Molecular biology often implies a series of techniquesfor purifying, handling, amplifying (PCR, Polymerase Chain Reaction),detecting, testing and copying (cloning) nucleic acids.

Such operations are performed in highly specialized laboratories usingsophisticated apparatuses which operate on biological material samples,appropriately collected beforehand from patients, thus performing theappropriate processing operations listed above in order to achieve aresult and issue a medical report.

Typically, a testing cycle of this type may even last for several hoursbecause very often it is necessary to wait for the biochemical reactionsto be performed on samples in one of the testers, which sometimesrequires very long time to be completed.

The known systems have platforms which accommodate the biologicalmaterial samples and dispense the contents into specific containers(typically microtiter plates or reaction tubes), named “consumables” inthe industry, because they are disposable instruments which must bethrown away after having completed the processing operations on thesamples they held.

Separation occurs by means of pipettes which, coupled to appropriateappendixes connected to a robotized arm, collect the biological samplein order to route it into the housings (called wells) of the aforesaidplates. A specific set of pipettes, which is replaced immediately withanother for any subsequent liquid collecting operation, typically fromseveral test tubes at the same time, is associated with each liquidcollecting operation; it is thus apparent that they are also consumableproducts, or simply consumables.

Other operation on samples already transferred to the plates may beperformed on such platforms, such as for example adding reactants (againby means of pipettes), centrifugation and sealing of the plate; theseare preliminary operations to the testing itself in all cases.

Indeed, only at a later time, the plate containing the samples, afterhaving been advantageously identified by means of a barcode reader, isrouted to a specific automation system for accommodating and conveyingsuch plates towards other automation or testing devices arrangeddownstream.

Problems appear in the known solutions because they require themandatory presence of an operator who manually loads the test tubes,typically accommodated in specific multi-well containers, onto theplatform.

Such multi-well containers may be of different size, and thus containany number of test tubes, but it is apparent that in all cases thepresence of an operator is needed to manually load one container afterthe other, in accordance with the working time of the platform. This isparticularly inefficient from the point of view of human resourcemanagement in the laboratory, because it forces the operator to be awareat all times and remember to load a new container whenever theprocessing of a previous container is completed; therefore, the operatorcannot continuously focus on other laboratory activities.

An even more noticeable disadvantage is determined by the fact that,with such a manual loading, the test tubes remain blocked on theplatform, in the containers, until the processing of all the samplescontained in a single multi-well container is completed in the platformitself, i.e. until the operator can replace such a container with a newone.

Such a processing, as mentioned, can last for even several hours, andthis thus implies a considerable inefficiency, and a dramaticmultiplication of times, considering one container after the other;furthermore, the samples blocked in the platform, besides a few instantsin which biological material is collected from them, are mostly standingon the platform without undergoing other operations.

A further disadvantage deriving from the manual loading is thepossibility of error, which has severe consequences deriving, forexample, from the testing of an “incorrect” sample.

The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus forautomatically loading biological samples on a platform, like those usedin the field of molecular biology, thus relieving from this task thelaboratory operator in charge, who may then focus on other activities,thus reducing the likelihood of errors in the scope of seeking greaterefficiency, i.e. total laboratory automation (TLA) of most operations.

In other words, the target is a walk-away system in which the operatoronly needs to set up the portion of the system comprising the machineswhich perform the typical molecular biology activities; once the systemhas been started, the aforesaid portion of the system must be able toautonomously manage the movements of the various machines which form it,without needing any human intervention.

Another object is to provide an apparatus which prevents the samplesfrom being blocked for hours in the platform, despite the fact that theactual collection of biological material from each one, consideredindividually, lasts in actual fact only a few seconds. In other words,it is necessary to optimize the collecting process, and thus free thesamples from the interaction with the platform nearly instantaneouslyafter collection.

These and other objects are achieved by an apparatus for automaticallyfilling wells of plates with biological material from a laboratoryautomation system for conveying biological samples or reactantscontained in test tubes, and automatically routing said plates towardsprocessing modules of said biological material, characterized in that itcomprises a platform interposed between said laboratory automationsystem and a handling system of consumable products, which includes ahorizontal crosspiece whereon a first robot and a second robot aresliding mounted, the first robot being provided with gripping means ofpipettes adapted to collect and release the biological material or thereactant, and a second robot being provided with gripping means ofconsumable products, said automation system comprising a control boardmutually communicating with a control board of said platform so that theoperation of collecting biological material or reactants from theautomation system can be simultaneously performed for a variable numberof test tubes equal, at most, to the number of said gripping means ofsaid first robot.

These and other features of the present invention will become furtherapparent from the following detailed description of an embodimentthereof, shown by way of non-limitative example in the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a first embodiment of an apparatusaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a plan view of the apparatus in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 shows a front view of the apparatus in FIG. 1.

A molecular biology platform 1 is located in a test laboratory.

Platform 1 comprises a surface 2 with a series of housings 3 for plates4; such housings 3 are not all mutually equivalent because each housingmay correspond to a specific processing operation on the biologicalmaterial contained in the respective plate 4 accommodated in housing 3according to the position with respect to surface 2. In FIG. 1, somehousings 3 accommodate a plate 4, while the others are empty.

The plates 4 comprise a series of housings or wells 41 adapted toaccommodate biological material.

Platform 1 is additionally provided, again along the surface 2, withsome devices 5 which may perform operations of various type on plates 4,e.g. sealing or centrifugation of the plate 4 itself.

Platform 1 is surmounted by a horizontal crosspiece 6 on which tworobots 7, 8 sliding along said crosspiece 6 are coupled. Grippingdevices 9, i.e. fingers, are connected to the first robot 7, each fingerbeing used to couple with pipettes 10, which either collect or releaseliquids during the various operative steps, as explained in greaterdetail below. The second robot 8, instead, has a gripping device 11 usedto couple, and consequently convey, plates 4 and containers 100 ofpipettes 10, i.e. more generically the consumable products, alongplatform 1 but also at the platform entrance and exit.

A known apparatus similar to platform 1 is described in patentEP-1627687.

Platform 1 interfaces, by means of said crosspiece 6, both with alaboratory automation system 12 for handling biological productcontainers or test tubes 13 (similar to that described in patentEP-2225567 by the applicant) and with a system 14 used for handlingconsumable products 4, 100. Plates 4, either empty or containingbiological material adapted to be processed and tested by the testingmodule 18, can move in system 14.

In the following description, we will examine only the interfacing of aplatform 1 with a system 12 and a system 14, considering that more thanone platform 1 may be used and interfaced with more than one system 12,14 according to the operative volumes of each test laboratory, in termsof number of biological samples in hand.

The laboratory automation system 12 includes a main lane 15 and asecondary lane 16 along which the biological samples contained in thetest tubes 13 are diverted to the height of a first diversion point 24if they have to interface with platform 1.

In a second embodiment, the automation system 12 comprises a furthersecondary lane which accommodates the further test tubes, diverted at asecond diversion point for purposes which will be explained in greaterdetail below. An ultrasound sensor, which can discriminate the level ofbiological sample contained in each of the test tubes along thesecondary lane, is present near such a further secondary lane.

The consumable handling system 14 is located on the other side ofplatform 1, with respect to the side interfacing with the automationsystem 12, to which consumable handling system one or storage devices 17of consumable products (FIG. 2) are connected, i.e. containers (oftenknown as hotels in the prior art), having shelves which can accommodatethe containers 100 of pipettes 10 or empty plates 4 to be later filledwith biological material. In general, such storage devices 17 thuscontain consumable products 4, 100 to be selectively routed (by means ofa rotation about the vertical axis of the device itself and a mechanismfor moving the various shelves which form it), when needed, to theconsumable handling system 14, to then be collected by the second robot8 and positioned on platform 1.

Operatively, the robot 8 grips an empty plate 4 and a container 100 ofnew pipettes 10 from system 14, thus positioning them on platform 1 indifferent housings 3.

The test tubes 13 containing primary samples to be collected areappropriately diverted at the first diversion point 24, from the mainlane 15 to the secondary lane 16 of the automation system 12. The firstof such test tubes 13 is stopped by a stop gate 19 (FIG. 2) and thefollowing are queued after it. After having diverted the necessarynumber of test tubes 13, the first robot 7 activates and grips a numberof pipettes 10 equal to the test tubes 13 queued along the secondarylane 16 from a housing 3 along platform 1.

The solution can thus be adapted to a variable number of pipettes 10 tobe simultaneously gripped while taking into account that there is amaximum number, established by the number of pipettes 10 which may beaccommodated on the same row of the container which accommodates them,and that such a number is also the maximum number of test tubes 13 fromwhich biological material can be collected at the same time. Thestandard size of pipette containers 10, as that of plates 4, is usuallyof ninety-six wells arranged on rows of eight. Appropriately, the numberof gripping fingers 9 connected to the first robot 7 is thus equal to amaximum number (i.e. eight in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1).

The fact that the first robot 7 is activated to favor the gripping ofpipettes 10 as soon as the appropriate number of test tubes 13 isachieved along the secondary lane 16 is the result of softwareinterfacing between a control board 20 of the automation system 12 and acontrol board 21 of platform 1.

Such an interfacing may be performed via a CAN network and a CANopentype communication protocol, and is bidirectional because, as in thiscase the control board 20 controls the operation of the platform 1 (andin particular of the first robot 7), and in the same way, once thecollection has happened, the control board 21 controls the release ofthe test tubes 13, previously blocked on the stop gate 19 along system12.

More in general, there is a continuous exchange of information by meansof control boards 20 and 21, between system 12 and platform 1; forexample, platform 1 may require the collection of biological materialfrom a given number of primary samples, and thus send a request for agiven number of test tubes 13 to be diverted to the automation system 12and the volume of sample which must be collected from each one.

In turn, as mentioned, the automation system 12 informs platform 1 whenthe appropriate number of test tubes 13 have been diverted along thesecondary lane 16 so that platform 1 can start the first robot 7 andcollect the primary samples. In detail, the appropriate amount ofpipettes 10 is gripped from the specific pipette container 100 locatedin one of the housings 3 by means of the fingers 9 of the first robot 7,which moves vertically and couples the pipettes 10. Subsequently, thefirst robot 7 is positioned on the vertical line over the secondary lane16 which accommodates the test tubes 13 with primary samples. Duringsuch a displacement, the fingers 9 open as a fan, by means ofappropriate fan opening means 91, so that each single pipette 10 is alsoon the vertical with respect to each stopped test tube 13.

At this point, the fingers 9 are lowered and the appropriate volume ofsample is collected from each test tube 13 (FIG. 1).

The collected samples are then conveyed by the first robot 7 andunloaded into the various wells 41 of a same row of a plate 4 to undergonew operations (e.g. the addition of reactants) managed partially orentirely by platform 1 from this instant in time. The reactants areindeed contained on a different plate 42 in a different housing 3.

It is worth noting that the pipettes 10 are replaced at the end of eachbiological material or reactant collecting operation; more specifically,the robot 7 firstly positions itself over a basket 71 of platform 1 andunloads the used pipettes 10 by actuating the release of the grippingmeans of the fingers 9; the robot 7 then positions itself over thecontainer 100 containing new pipettes 10 and operates the gripping ofthe fingers 9 of said new pipettes 10.

In the meantime, the test tubes 13 from which the biological materialwas collected are released by retracting the stop gate 19 (as mentionedthanks to the transfer information of collection happened from thecontrol board 21 of platform 1 to the control board 20 of system 12) andthus may return to the main lane 15 to be routed towards other points ofthe laboratory automation system 12.

Upon arrival of new test tubes 13, from which biological material mustbe collected, are diverted along the secondary lane 16, and theircontent is collected by the new pipettes 10, in the meantime gripped bythe fingers 9, and unloaded into the wells 41 belonging to the next rowof the plate 4.

As already mentioned, one of the housings 3 located at the base ofplatform 1 is—in the known solutions—dedicated to housing plates 42 withwells 43 containing a different reactant which is added to thebiological material samples newly unloaded into the wells 41 of theplate 4; this is conductive to the occurrence of given chemicalreactions on the biological sample, in particular to promote theseparation of DNA molecules to be analyzed later after the plate 4 isrouted to the appropriate instruments 18, located downstream of theplate handling system 14.

Being such wells 43 of reactant already positioned on platform 1 fromthe beginning, only batch processing is possible in the known solutionsbecause the amount of reactant in the wells 43 is calibrated to besufficient for a defined number of samples, advantageously a multiple ofthe maximum number of test tubes 13 from which biological material canbe collected at the same time, as described above.

Assuming that there are eight of such samples, batch processing mayimply an amount of reactant sufficient, for example, for twenty-foursamples, i.e. for three subsequent collecting cycles.

This is particularly inconvenient in the case in which the number ofprimary test tubes 13 from which collecting biological samples is higherthan this number, because after having completed the operation ofprocessing the first twenty-four samples there is no reactant for thelatter two, and therefore it is necessary to wait for the new manualfilling of the wells 43 of reactant by the operator, which may onlyoccur at the end of the operating cycle of platform 1, which, asmentioned, may last for hours.

The interfacing between the laboratory automation system 12 and theplatform 1 allows to overcome this batch processing limit as well,because it is possible to make test tubes 13 also filled with reactantinstead of biological material travel along system 12; therefore,reactant can be collected in the same way as described above for primarysamples, by diverting an appropriate number of test tubes 13 of reactantalong the secondary lane 16. Thereby, it is possible to add an amount ofreactant calibrated to the actual number of test tubes 13 from whichcollecting biological samples without necessarily having to process inbatches.

The second embodiment instead relates to the so-called poolingprocedures which implies a sharing biological samples from variousindividuals in a single test tube.

This is conductive to creating blood banks for collecting the mostdifferent samples as possible in a few test tubes on which to perform afirst, approximate analysis concerning the presence of specific viruses,such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)or Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV).

In addition to normal laboratory analysis routine, this procedure isadvantageously applied to preliminary testing carried out on samplesfrom individual blood donors (or on other biological materials).

Indeed, it is well known that the presence of the aforesaid viruses isin general rather rarely detected in a normal laboratory analysisroutines, and even more so in individuals who express their intention togive blood, and therefore are believed to be healthy; it is thereforepreferable to route a test tube containing the biological specimens alsoof several different individuals mixed together to a specific testingmodule for discriminating such types of viruses. This saves time andresources by providing a shared sample to be tested by the module test,and thus rapidly allows to reach the certainty that in case of negativeresult none of the individuals whose sample is in the test tube has theaforesaid virus(es).

In this manner, a preliminary screening for the presence of such givenviruses is determined much more rapidly than dedicating a single testtube to each sample. Naturally, in case of positive response, moredetailed tests must be immediately ordered to be performed this time onsingle test tubes, one for each sample of those forming the previousmixed test tube so as to discover which samples, i.e. which individuals,have the detected virus. The automation system 12 can manage thecriticality of a situation of this type, by routing the samples to beanalyzed in greater depth towards the appropriate modules located in thelaboratory along the route of the system 12 itself.

In order to perform such a pooling procedure, a given number of handlingdevices containing empty test tubes (“children test tubes”) are divertedalong the further secondary lane, at the second diversion point. In theembodiment, such a number is again equal to eight, in accordance withthe number of pipettes 10 of platform 1, for reasons which will beillustrated below. Obviously, also in this case, the first of such emptytest tubes diverted along the secondary lane is stopped by a stop gateand the following ones are queued after it.

At the same and in manner similar to that described in the firstembodiment above, the handling devices (again eight in this embodiment)containing full test tubes 13 (“parent test tubes”), each of whichconveys a biological sample from only one patient, are diverted alongthe secondary lane 16.

Afterwards, the biological material contained in the parent test tubes13 is collected as before using the pipettes 10, which this time isunloaded into the respective children test tubes aligned empty andwaiting along the secondary lane instead of being unloaded onto theplates 4 on platform 1.

At the end of such an operation, the parent test tubes 13 are releasedby retracting the stop gate 19. Later on, when eight new handlingdevices have been further diverted along the secondary lane 16 and arewaiting having been stopped at the gate 19, the content is collectedagain by means of other pipettes 10, and unloaded into the same childrentest tubes which in the meantime were not released, unlike the previousbatch of parent test tubes 13.

The children test tubes are therefore gradually filled with the additionin each of a given amount of biological material from mutually differentparent test tubes 13 (and thus individuals) for each cycle. It thusresults that each child test tube contains a total sample which issimply the mixture of an equal number of samples from different parenttest tubes 13.

The ultrasound sensor is activated at the end of each unloadingoperation of biological material from the parent test tubes 13 to thechildren test tubes to detect the filling level of each child test tubeeach time until a “full test tube” signal is generated after a givennumber of filling operations, which is followed by the release of thechildren test tubes by the stop gate; the test tubes therefore returnalong the main lane 15 of the automation system 12 to then be routed tothe appropriate modules used to identify the presence of given viruses,such as—as mentioned—HIV, HPV or HSV, in the mixed samples contained insuch children test tubes.

Assuming that a child test tube is filled only after having unloaded thecontents of sixteen different parent test tubes 13, it is apparent thatthe children test tubes each contain samples from sixteen differentindividuals when they are finally released from the stop gate 1;furthermore, since each incoming sample is associated to a differentindividual, the total at each release of eight children test tubes is16×8=128 individuals. It is therefore easy to understand how, oncehaving routed them to the HIV, HPV or HSV testing modules, such childrentest tubes with mixed samples allow to combine the tests (at least interms of preliminary screening) for a high number of individuals, thussaving time and resources.

One of the innovative aspects according to the present invention is thusthe possibility of collecting biological samples or reactants (to berouted to a molecular biological platform 1 or only in the case ofsamples to other test tubes waiting along the pooling lane) from testtubes 13 which if needed are diverted along the secondary lane 16 of theautomation system 12, and then released after a few instants from theaforesaid collection, being able to return into cycle along system 12and to be possibly immediately routed to new automation modules ortesters which interface with the system 12 itself.

Therefore, the test tubes 13 never leave the automation system 12; thisdoes not occur in the known solutions, in which the test tubescontaining biological material are accommodated in large amounts in aspecific container which is then manually inserted by an operator onplatform 1. Disadvantageously, in this manner the entire number of testtubes must wait on platform 1 for the operative cycle to be completedbefore being removed again manually by the operator and replaced withanother one. This implies that the first test tubes from whichbiological material is collected must, in all cases, wait for theoperations to be performed for the last test tubes allocated in the samecontainer, thus for the subsequent processing operations to be performedfor the collected sample and not only the collecting operation, whichmay last for hours. In the same manner, the latter although arrivinglater, remain stopped on the platform already for a long time before,i.e. while the first ones are collected. In brief, besides the fewinstants during which the sample is collected, the test tubes remainidly stopped on platform 1 in the known solutions.

Advantageously, the interfacing of platform 1 with an automation system12 allows to make test tubes 13 also containing reactants to be combinedwith the biological material samples so that given chemical reactionsoccur in the wells 41 of the plates 4 travel along the system. Thenecessary reactant is made available in this manner gradually inplatform 1 only when needed. This allows to overcome the limitrepresented by the obligation of batch processing of the test tubesderiving from the fact of having a fixed amount of reactant in platform1 which is sufficient also for a predetermined number of samples.

In general, the automation of the operation process in the solutionaccording to the present invention is higher because the presence of anoperator is no longer necessary to manually replace the container oftest tubes 13 on which processing has been completed with a new one tobe processed on platform 1. Therefore, this is a walk-away system, inwhich the operator may—in brief—move away from the involved machineryand focus on other tasks in the test laboratory. Advantageously, thereis a drastic reduction, or complete elimination, of errors caused bymanual, repetitive operations by the operator.

This falls within the scope of the increasingly pressing search forTotal Laboratory Automation (TLA), and thus a greater efficiency in atest laboratory in which molecular biology-related activities areperformed, thus substantially cancelling out the possibility of humanerror.

The invention thus devised is susceptible to many changes and variants,all falling within the scope of the inventive concept.

In practice, the materials used as well as the shapes and size may beany, according to needs.

1. Plant comprising a laboratory automation system for conveying aplurality of single test tubes containing biological material and aplurality of single test tubes containing reactants, a handling systemfor moving plates with wells with biological material to be tested, aplatform interposed between the laboratory automation system and thehandling system, said platform housing plates and containers containinga plurality of new pipettes, and comprising a horizontal crosspiecewhereon a first robot and a second robot are slidingly mounted, wherebythe laboratory automation system comprises a main lane and a secondarylane for conveying the plurality of single test tubes, a stop gate forblocking the plurality of single test tubes, and means for diverting theplurality of single test tubes containing biological material to betested or reactants for said biological material to be tested, from themain lane to the secondary lane of said laboratory automation system,and whereby the handling system comprises means for moving the plateswith wells to testing modules, said first robot, gripping a linearsequence of new pipettes from a container by a linear sequence offingers for gripping pipettes, moving said linear sequence of pipettesover said test tubes linearly queued at the stop gate of the laboratoryautomation system, collecting biological material or reactant from saidtest tubes after lowering said fingers into said test tubes, conveyingthe collected biological material or reactant over wells of a plateincluded in a housing of the platform, releasing the collectedbiological material or reactant into said wells of a plate, andreleasing the used pipettes into a basket of the platform, said secondrobot, gripping plates with wells filled with biological material to betested and moving them to said handling system, gripping plates withempty wells from the handling system and move them to housings of theplatform, gripping containers containing a plurality of new pipettesfrom the handling system and moving them to housings of the platform,said platform being also provided with a control board mutuallycommunicating with a control board of the laboratory automation system,so that the number of the pipettes to be gripped by the fingers of thefirst robot is equal to the number of test tubes linearly queued at thestop gate of the laboratory automation system, the maximum number ofpipettes being equal to the number of pipettes accommodated on the samerow of the container.
 2. The plant according to claim 1, wherein theautomation system comprises a further secondary lane which accommodatesfurther test tubes, and a further stop gate for blocking said furthertest tubes.
 3. The plant according to claim 2, further including anultrasound sensor able to discriminate the level of biological materialcontained in each of said further test tubes.